Investigating Emotional Displacement in Exit west by Mohsin Hamid

Abstract

This dissertation is a literary examination of the depiction of emotional displacement in Mohsin Hamid's Exit West. This study draws on attachment theory to argue that the spatial and political experience of migration cannot be separated from its emotional and psychological impact on relationships, intimacy, and continuity. The study investigates emotional displacement and what is called "emotional migration" to understand how this displacement causes emotional instability and how that instability alters Saeed and Nadia's relationship. This thesis draws on diaspora in Pakistani literature, emotional displacement, and John Bowlby's attachment theory. It focuses on how intimate relationships are made and re-made under difficult circumstances and during crises, such as forced displacement. Attachment theory in this thesis is not viewed as a stable way of relating, but as dynamic, unstable, and formed by instability and loss. This work is divided into three chapters. The first chapter presents the theoretical framework focusing on Diaspora, Emotional Displacement, and Attachment Theory. The second chapter explores the psychological states of Saeed and Nadia in the wake of their displacement. The third chapter applies Attachment Theory to the novel by analyzing attachment anxiety, emotional withdrawal, and the construction of shifting attachment states amid long-term separation and displacement. Ultimately, the thesis argues that emotional displacement is a central part of the novel's development: Saeed develops an attachment pattern that depends on centrality, while Nadia develops an attachment style that depends on emotional detachment and self-creation. The contrasting attachment patterns of Saeed depend on their relationship over time, showing that even under prolonged separation and emotional displacement, intimacy and identity continue to shift